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Former mayor of Bogota to speak on Third World cities, Dec. 3

Posted November 29, 2001; 02:14 p.m.

by rstevens

Penalosa, former mayor of Bogota, Columbia, will present a public lecture titled "A New Model for the Third World City" at 4:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 3, in Betts Auditorium, School of Architecture.

Penalosa served as mayor of Bogota from 1998 to 2001, during which time he led a massive effort to improve Bogotas marginal neighborhoods infrastructures, promoting high citizen involvement. His administration spearheaded large improvements to the city center by instituting a successful bus system, creating parks and bicycle paths, planting trees, promoting public spaces and restricting the use of private automobiles in the city.

During his tenure, enrollment in public schools increased by 34 percent, more than 100 nursery schools were built for children under age 5, improvements were made to more than 150 existing school buildings and 50 new schools were built. All public schools were linked to the Internet via a network of 14,000 computers, and several new libraries were constructed.